Sunday, December 27, 2009

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas!I enjoyed having a houseful, it makes Christmas mean so much more. I am sure we all have some leftover turkey so my first few recipes are using our leftovers, if you have no leftovers use chicken or turkey, they will work wonderfully! Happy New Year Everyone!

Honey Mustard Sauce: In small bowl, stir together mayonnaise, Dijon and honey. (Make-ahead: Cover and refrigerate for up to 3 days.)
Between sheets of plastic wrap, pound chicken with flat side of meat pounder or with rolling pin until 1/2 inch thick. Cut lengthwise on diagonal into 4- x 1-1/2-inch strips. In bowl, whisk eggs. In shallow bowl, combine cheese, bread crumbs, oregano, salt, pepper and paprika.
One at a time, dip chicken strips into eggs, letting any excess drip back into bowl. Dredge in cheese mixture, coating generously and pressing to adhere. (Make-ahead: Refrigerate, layered between waxed paper, in airtight container for up to 24 hours. Or freeze for up to 2 weeks; bake frozen, adding 5 minutes to baking time.)
Arrange on greased baking sheets; drizzle with butter. Bake in 425°F oven until golden, crispy and no longer pink inside, about 15 minutes. Serve with dipping sauce.

2. In a skillet over medium heat season ground beef with garlic powder and oregano. Brown the meat and drain.

3. In a large sauce pan add spaghetti sauce, tomato sauce, and oregano; set aside. In a skillet heat olive oil. Saute garlic and onions for about 5 minutes. Mix sauteed onions and garlic with meat into the sauce and cook for 15 to 20 minutes.

5. Layer a 9x13 inch baking pan with just enough sauce to cover the bottom of the pan. Lay three lasagna noodles in the pan. Cover with sauce, then with ricotta mixture then sprinkle with mozzarella/provolone mixture; repeat layering. Finish with a layer of noodles and remaining sauce. Sprinkle with parmesan cheese.

6. Bake covered in a preheated oven at 375 degrees for 30 minutes. Uncover and bake for 15 minutes.

Wednesday - My sister is cooking something I have NO IDEA how to make....Tom Yum soup and Red Curry. I did find this recipe on All Recipies, sounds YUMMY!

2. Melt butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Cook garlic, onions, bell pepper, and celery in butter until tender, but not brown. In another pan, cook sausage over medium-high heat until evenly browned.

3. Place corn bread and bread slices in a food processor. Pulse until they turn into a crumbly mixture. Transfer mixture to a large bowl. Season with sage, thyme, poultry seasoning, salt, and pepper. Mix in chopped parsley, cooked vegetables, and sausage with drippings. Stir in eggs and chicken stock. This mixture should be a bit mushy. Transfer to a greased 9x13 inch pan.

Ingredients1. Put turkey, skin bones and all, into a pot with 2 quarts of lightly salted water, and bring to boil. Important: the skin and bones make the broth taste great. that's where the flavor is. this wont work using skinless, boneless turkey breasts.

2. Reduce heat and simmer until turkey is starting to loosen from the bones and broth looks. well. like broth. (about 20 minutes).

3. Carefully, remove turkey from broth making sure to get any little bones that may be on the bottom of the pot. Set turkey aside to let cool.

4. Add onion, Rotel, cumin, garlic, chili powder, and black pepper to the pot. Add 1/2 tsp crushed pepper for medium heat, less if you like it mild, or more if you like it spicy. I use 1 teaspoons.

5. Stir, and let simmer until turkey is cool enough to handle.

6. Tear off turkey meat and place back into pot discarding skin and bones.

7. Cut off about a 2 inch section from a log of Velveeta cheese, then cut into cubes.

8. Add cheese, and cilantro to soup and stir over low heat until cheese is melted into the soup. Let simmer stirring often.

9. Stack corn tortillas and slice into thin shreds with a sharp knife. Cook tortilla shreds in a small amount of hot oil until crisp. Drain on paper towels.

10. To serve, ladle soup into individual bowls and top with a dollop of sour cream (optional) and the tortilla strips.

Sunday, December 13, 2009

So I am posting this a little later on Sunday than I would have hoped to but I had a great weekend and let's just say I enjoyed the potlatch (better Jen?) a little too much ;) So without further ado here is this weeks menu, I guess I better hit the grocery store!

Heat olive oil in a 6 quart stockpot over medium heat. When it is hot, add onions, garlic, salt and cayenne pepper. Saute until the onions are soft and translucent, 4 to 5 minutes.
Add the chicken stock and bring to a boil, once the stock is boiling, add the broccoli and cook until fork tender, about 5 minutes.
Remove the soup from the heat and let it cool slightly. Then puree the soup, in batches, in a blender, adding the cheese in three additions while blending (see Note). Adjust the seasoning if necessary, garnish with croutons if desired, and serve hot.

NOTE: Please use caution when blending hot liquids; blend only a small amount at a time, with the blender lid tightly covered and with a kitchen towel held over the top

Directions
Preheat oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C).
Warm the garlic and olive oil to blend the flavors. In a separate dish, combine the bread crumbs and Parmesan cheese. Dip the chicken breasts in the olive oil and garlic mixture, then into the bread crumb mixture. Place in a shallow baking dish.
Bake in the preheated oven for 30 to 35 minutes, until no longer pink and juices run clear.

Thursday - Steak Fajitas Recipe

Ingredients

1 lb of flank steak or skirt steak
1 large yellow onion, peeled and sliced with the grain, not against the grain as one would normally slice an onion. Slice first in half, and then slice off sections a half inch wide at widest point.
2 large bell peppers, stemmed, seeded, de-ribbed, sliced lengthwise into half-inch wide strips

Directions
Mix all marinade ingredients. Set the steak in the marinade and let it sit at least an hour, the longer the better.
Heat to high heat a large cast iron pan or griddle. Add a teaspoon of olive oil to the pan. Add the steak, frying on each side for 3 minute,. 3 minutes per side will yield approximately medium rare for an average cut of flank steak. If pan starts to smoke too much, reduce the heat to medium high. We want the steak browned, not burned. Remove from pan and let sit for 5 minutes.
Slice steak into thin slices, roll in tortillas and serve with salsa, sour cream, guacamole, shredded cheese.

Wednesday, December 9, 2009

The Christmas Cookie Exchange...So this year I was invited to do a Christmas cookie exchange with 12 other women, SERIOUSLY 12. That means 144 goodies, to exchange. 144. That is a lot of goodies to make. So I have finally figured out what I am making. Easy. Yummy.Here is the recipe,

Now with that out of the way, I must begin to prep for the 1st Annual Ugly Sweater Party, truthfully it may not be an annual thing but now that I will have an ugly sweater, I need to wear it somewhere. I have asked for it to be a potluck, so now what to make? I am pretty sure I will go with Old Faithful, Spinach dip in a sourdough bread bowl.

Thaw and drain the spinich, really squeeze the excess water out of it for best results. Combine sour cream, miracle whip, soup mix, spinach. Leave in fridge to soften, at least 2 hours. Place dip in sourdough round and Viola! A neat trick I do is to score the sides of the sourdough bread so when the "bowl" is empty you can tear off the chunks of bread to enjoy the last of the dip!

Sunday, December 6, 2009

So this is my VERY FIRST BLOG EVER. I figured I write a meal plan every week, and email it to a bunch of people so why not blog it instead??? Secretly I have always wanted to blog because I read so damn many of them.

So, who am I? A crazy red headed wife, and Mum of 2 beautiful girls. I enjoy cooking and baking and one day I will own a restaurant....okay maybe more like a cafe....hahaha....but without further ado here is my first, of hopefully many, weekly meal plans....and yes I do use other websites for recipes, they are not all my own, ONE DAY my friends, one day.

As many potatoes as peoplecut like friesplace foil on a baking sheettoss potatoes in a bowl with olive oil, and seasoning saltspread potatoes on baking sheetcook at 350 for 40 mins or until done...seriously, lame i know but some ovens take longer.

DISCLAIMER

I make no claims that the recipes here are original (i.e. mine) and make every effort to cite the author/website I found it on. If you see something I have omitted, PLEASE feel to contact me and I will be happy to correct it!